Fisherman's Daughter
by TheRedPenofDoom87
Summary: One-shot, set after the movie. Astrid names her dragon, with a little help from her mother.


Just a little something i wrote a few days ago in celebration of one of my favorite movies comming out on DVD!

So, if you didn't know. Astrid isn't a canon character in the books. She got added by the filmmakers but I like her and since she doesn't have a back story, this is what my brain came up with.

ENJOY!

I own nothing, its all dream works and Cressida Cowell

* * *

For a fisherman's daughter, she's done pretty well for herself, she realizes as the breaking silver and azure waves crash beneath her. Astrid tips herself slightly to the left and her Nadder spreads its wings wider to fall a good ten feet down closer to the water. From the Nadder's back, she can see schools of silvery fish slipping away from them, the jagged rocks too deep to break through the surface. Astrid pushes her weight even more slowly to the left and the Nadder's wing tip plows through the ocean, scaring the fish. If she wanted to, Astrid could reach down and touch it too.

The wind feels good on her cheeks, makes her feel alive. Especially today. Today, Astrid wishes that she had wings herself but this is close enough. It's true; there's nothing quite like the smell of the harsh ocean from above and the warmth of the Nadder's body. They make her forget everything else.

She straightens and re-centers her weight. They push through the dizzying maze of rocks that rise from the depths on the far side of the island. The seagulls, scared by such a huge shape, squawk and leap up into the air. But they can't catch her, her or the Nadder. Astrid and her dragon skim over a cliff and then drop straight down into the mist that gathered along the edge of Berk that hadn't been burned away by the slowly rising sun. Even though this particular sensation is nothing new, Astrid relishes the feel of her heart leaping into her throat at the sheer excitement of flight itself. She turns the Nadder into as many spirals as they both can stand, simply for the fun of it. They pull out of the dive with a few feet to spare.

Suddenly the Nadder gives a low squawk of recognition and twists her head back and forth trying to see behind her. Astrid glances to her right and sees nothing but misty topt ocean and a flock of escaping sea gulls. To her left, though, a shadow moving faster than it should. She should have known, Astrid tells herself. Now she can hear Toothless' artificial tail fin slapping against the wind.

She glances back to see Hiccup and Toothless behind them, quickly gaining speed. "You wanna race, Sneeze?" She lets her voice carry on the whipping wind as it blows by her.

Hiccup smirks and urges Toothless forward until they're neck and neck with her and her Nadder. "As if you could beat us!" He calls back.

"Let's see it!" Astrid yells back, slipping to the right, narrowly avoiding a jutting rock. Toothless isn't clumsy either, he hits the rock and bounces off again all in one fluid motion.

"Come on!" Astrid whispers to her Nadder. "Let's show them!" She glances to her right to see Hiccup and Toothless moving faster. "Odin damn him and his stupid Night Fury!" She growls. Gripping the leather strap beneath the Nadder's neck and pressing more of her weight into the stirrups just in front of the wing joints, she flattens herself closer behind the Nadder's head.

They are coming up on the village side of Berk; Astrid can see the bare bones of the shipyard coming up fast. She cranes over the Nadder's side to see if she can make out her father's ship, or even just him. It would be…nice to see him today of all days...Not that she wouldn't see him in a few days, it just- But Astrid puts the thought out of her mind as the ship yard is quickly moving from view. Despite her decision, Astrid keeps looking, she shifts her weight to the right, then the left and then…

The hard cold slap of ocean water hits her full in the face. Before she knows it, she's totally submerged. She sinks for a moment and lets herself be pushed and pulled by the current as the shock wears off. She sputters as she comes to the surface to see the Nadder disappearing behind one of rocks near the edge of the village. Grumbling, she swims to the nearest rock and tries to shake off as much water as she can.

"Astrid!" She looks up to see Toothless landing neatly on the rock's peak. "What happened?" Hiccup asks.

"I dunno…" She hauls herself up on a cliff, still about five feet below Toothless and Hiccup. "It was fine and then she dumped me."

"Can we give you a ride back home?" He offers a hand as well as a crooked smile.

"I would hope so…" Astrid growls and takes his hand. But being the fishbone that he is, it doesn't help much. But his hand is warm and welcoming, without much guile. As nice as he is, she knows she's not going to get out of this without some teasing.

But in order to actually get up, Toothless has to offer her one of his back legs. She settles herself behind Hiccup and wraps her arms around his waist. He shivers as her soaking wet shirt hits his back and Astrid grins; a little investment in all the pain she'll have to cause him when he starts teasing her.

But all of that falls away as Toothless leaps into the air, his wings catching the updrafts. As they fly, Astrid knows that she and her Nadder couldn't have beaten Toothless. Sure her Nadder is agile and fairly fast but they would come in semi-close second, but they could never have won. Never in a million years.

"Was there something wrong with the saddle?" Hiccup asks suddenly, turning to look at her. She notices the small, almost invisible burn marks across his other cheek and forehead, pearly in the mid-morning light.

Astrid shakes her head. "No, I don't think so."

"Maybe I should take a look at it…." He suggests. "Just in case."

"Fine." She huffs. "But there's nothing wrong with it."

"Will you just let me look?"

"I didn't say you couldn't!"

Toothless suddenly grumbles low in his throat, arching his back to dislodge his passengers. They've arrived at Astrid's, her Nadder up on the perch near her window. Astrid dismounts and calls up the sky blue creature, who watches everything upside down. "Get down here, you!"

The Nadder lands and sniffs at Hiccup whose come to stand next to her. "Here you take a look." She tells him as she un-plaits her wet hair and gives it a shake. Toothless hisses a little at the flying water droplets. But he stops as soon as she lays her hand on his nose. "Silly dragon…" With her other hand she reaches out and scratches her Nadder under its head and neck while Hiccup inspects the saddle.

"I don't get it," he mutters to himself on the Nadder's other side. The only part of him she can see is the prosthetic foot that squeaks every time he takes a step. It doesn't shock her as much anymore; the first few weeks she'd jump every time she saw or heard it. But now, she can hardly imagine him any other way. It has become as much a part of him as his green eyes or his diminutive size; though that may not be around for much longer, she notices that they're eye-to-eye now.

"There's nothing wrong with it…"She rolls her eyes as she slips off her boots and tosses them closer to the house. "I just cleaned it last night. I wanted to try it out." That's only part of the reason but he doesn't need to know the rest. It's her own business.

There are a few metallic snaps and then the saddle slides off the Nadder's back. "You'll probably have to let it dry out and then re-oil it tomorrow." He says, handing it to her.

"Joy…" she sets it in the sun.

"So, why'd you fall?" He asks again.

She shrugs. "I dunno."

"What do you mean: you don't know? You _always_ know."

The Nadder leans her nose against Astrid's arm; in solidarity or apology? "I already told you: I just…don't know." She looks over at him. "What? Not everyone's as smart as you are, Sneeze." She smiles, though.

He smiles just as crookedly as before. "No…I guess not."

"Don't get a big head," she kisses his cheek in thanks. "Toothless won't be able to get off the ground…"

"What? Me?" he laughs deprecatingly. "No, no, no. I'm the very definition of humble."

"Yeah, whatever…" She flips back a piece of her loose bangs and leans against her Nadder's shoulder. "Don't you have chores to get to, O' Intelligent One? I know I do."

Hiccup grins sheepishly. Gobber's probably waiting on him, she thinks to herself. "Yeah…So, we're done here?" He wonders, a blush coloring his freckles.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Hiccup." She promises. "At dawn? Off Raven Point?"

"A re-match?"

"Only if you show up," she grins.

"Deal!"

She waves as he hops back on Toothless and she returns to her empty house.

During the completion of her chores, (after she's changed out of her soaking wet clothes) Astrid watches the Nadder out of the corner of her eye. It waddles on its two legs after her, flaps its wings. At the end of the day, she tosses it a few fish, which the dragon catches neatly in her huge jaws.

"So what's wrong?" Astrid asks the Nadder as she hangs the dripping saddle from the perch outside her window. The Nadder no longer sleeps on it; she's found a place on Astrid's floor or hanging upside down from the rafters above Astrid's bed. "You're not sick…you're not hurt…Are you mad at me?"

But the dragon continues to sniff at the breeze coming in through Astrid's open window.

And then it comes to her. "You don't have a name, do you?"

The Nadder turns to blink owlishly at her.

Instantly, and for no reason other than the date, a name springs to mind. Astrid kicks it around a few times, until it plays on a continuous loop. "I can't name you that," Astrid tells herself more than the sleepy dragon. "I can't do it." She whispers, sitting on the floor next to the curled up dragon. "How about 'Fafnir'?" No response.

She thinks of her father who, no doubt, is on his way home from the fishing grounds. Probably watching for the sun to go down, maybe he is getting close to the shipyard even now. But she knows that he is still gazing out at the ocean, just as she did earlier.

"Volsung?" The Nadder yawns.

She remembers the day, exactly five years ago, when he stopped watching the horizon and so did she. They stopped waiting for _that_ ship to come home. She remembers crying herself to sleep for weeks.

"Gudrun? Brynhild?" Nothing.

She thinks of how, in a childish rage, she screamed at him, calling him a coward for not vowing vengeance. She remembers that she told herself that if her father would not honor her mother, then she certainly would; if she wouldn't be a fisherman's daughter, she'd be a warrior woman's instead.

"Byrn?"

And in a flash, she thinks of all the things that have happened since then that allow a live Deadly Nadder to be almost curled up in her lap at this very moment.

No other name seems to fit the creature, which is both fiercely loyal, she's come to realize, and deadly. Astrid hates to admit a losing battle but realizes there is no choice. She sighs in defeat and looks down at the dragon. "How do you like 'Signy'?"

The Nadder raises her sky blue head and cocks her it a little so she can look straight into Astrid's. The huge creature huffs out a deep smoky but warm breath, one Astrid takes as consent. Of course the dragon likes that name.

"It was my mother's name…." she admits aloud. "She must think I'm crazy to name a dragon after her." Astrid shakes her head at the silliness but doesn't stop stroking the Nadder's.

The Nadder scoots her head a little closer to her chin rests on Astrid's leg. But her eyes don't close. Instead they watch Astrid's every move with intrepid interest, as if to say: 'It's taken you long enough!'

"You know you kind of remind me of her," Astrid tells Signy. Now that it's out there, it just won't go away. "I wonder-"

She will not say this bit out loud, it's too embarrassing. At least now. But she wonders if maybe her mother sent this dragon to her, if, perhaps, she saw the truth and came down and come down to teach it to her daughter. It's a silly thought, Astrid decides and tries to put it out of her mind. She does not tell her father. Not even Hiccup. Even though she knows he'll probably understand. She does not tell anyone, it is something that she keeps locked in her head and heart. Something entirely her own. Like Signy.

Astrid rubs Signy's head until the dragon purrs in her sleep, the sweet heat cloaking her. Astrid begins to tell Signy of her namesake, good and bad things, sad and funny. She tells the dragon about the last time she saw her mother, disappearing in the mist, never to return. Astrid doesn't cry now; she hasn't in years. What's past is past, she knows now. And while clearly the dragon is asleep, it still feels good to say the words out loud to someone who will just listen.

Tonight, she'll go to bed and dream of her mother, though Astrid can't quite remember all the details the way she used to. She'll dream of flying and of falling but, the dragon, Signy is always there to catch her. And when she wakes up in the morning, the sky will be too blue, too big to resist.

Without a second thought, she'll tie a simple rope around Signy's middle, in front of the wing joints and beneath the neck. They'll take off into the sky from Astrid's bedroom perch and start off toward Raven Point. And along the way, she'll see a small ship making its way back to Berk.


End file.
